While catching up on my reading, I ran across a TechPresident post on how left-wing groups may be funded in the future through small donations just as ActBlue has helped fund left-wing politicians. One quote stood out:
It would, in theory, also work on the right side of the spectrum, though there’s no ActBlue equivalent in conservative circles.
True dat. But the question is, “Why?”
ActBlue came along in 2004, when the model for online fundraising was John McCain’s 1999-2000 primary run against George W. Bush. Outside of PayPal, there wasn’t much in the way of online infrastructure payments. ActBlue was like a railroad, building tracks between excited online activists with cash and the candidates who needed it.
Six years later, there isn’t an ActRed, and with good reason. Campaigns have become sufficiently sophisticated that there’s no mystery to internet fundraising. (There are also lots of good consultants ready to help.) While internet fundraising in 2004 was like the railroad system, internet fundraising in 2010 is more like the interstate system, with individuals controlling their own destination more directly.
Jim Eltringham 
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